The "3-Cent Stamp" Coin.

 

Canada . 3-Cent "Collector's Issue", 2001 (enlarged)
Commemorating 150 th Year of Canada 's First Postage Stamp.
Obv: Designer & Modeller - Dora de Pédery-Hunt
Rev: Des. - Sanford Fleming; Model.: Cosme Saffioti
Comp: Silver .925 fine, 24K gold-leaf covered
Weight: 5.3 grams; Diam.: 21.2 mm
Issue: 59,573 cased proofs @ $39.95

From the Mint's "blurb" that accompanied the appearance of this "collector's coin" in 2001, it seems that they were inadvertantly commemorating two things of importance while pushing yet another "Mint product". Certainly the issue corresponds to nothing that Canada had ever issued for currency - not "3 Cents"; not in silver; not gold-foil covered. The Mint became excited about the original having been the "world's first animal pictorial stamp" designed by Sir Sanford Fleming (he wasn't knighted until 1897).

On April 12, 1851 , the British government passed an act transferring the operation of the domestic post office to the Province of Canada . At the same time, it also transferred the post offices in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to their respective legislatures. It's hard to say which of the three actually issued the first stamp - all three issued a 3-cent stamp in 1851.

The change was destined to speed up the mails considerably. Heretofore, mail rates had been 9d for a domestic letter; now it was immediately dropped to 3d - with much the same result as Hill's "Penny Post" of 1840 in England : so much extra business that a profit was actually turned. At the time, the Province of Canada planned on the immediate opening of 243 new post offices, their belief being that even with a deficit, the overall result to the country's commerce and business would be positive. Happily, they were to find that there was little or no deficit.

The first stamp in the Province of Canada , the little "Thrup'ny Red", was designed by Sanford Fleming, at the time hardly famous. Quite possibly he chose the beaver since it was already emblematic of Canada ; or possibly because of its industry; or possibly because it was the reason Canada came to be in the first place. Whatever.

 

Province of Canada . Threepenny "red", 1851. Imperforate.   First issue, Designed by Sanford Fleming.

Sanford Fleming was quite a man. Were he a native of nearly any other country, there would no doubt be statues raised in his honour, public buildings named and so forth. But, being Canadian, we are wont to ask "Who?".

Born in Kirkcaldy , Scotland , on 7 January, 1827 , he studied surveying and civil engineering there before emigrating to Canada in 1845 to the Toronto area, around which he made surveys for some years. It so happened that he was in Montreal on the occasion of the "loyalist" riots when the parliament buildings were burnt down in 1849; a staunch imperialist, it was Fleming who rescued the portrait of Queen Victoria from the burning building.

Joining the engineering staff of the " Ontario , Simcoe and Huron (later 'Northern') Railway", he was named chief of the division 1857-62. In 1863, he was the unanimous choice to head the survey of the Halifax -to- Rivière du Loup "Intercolonial Rauilway". In 1871, he was appointed engineer-in-chief to superintend the surveys for the route of the Canadian Pacific Railway and it was he that demonstrated the feasibility of the Kicking Horse, Eagle and Rogers Passes route. Simultaneously, he was adviser to the government of Newfoundland on railway construction.

He retired from government service in 1880 but in pursuing his literary and scientific work, was busier than ever. It was Fleming who was the "Father of Standard Time", coming up with the idea of dividing the world up into 24 time-zones in 1878-9 - an idea that was internationally adopted in 1884 at the Prime Meridian Conference in Washington . Vice-president of the United Empire League, he was Canadian representative at the Colonial Conferences of 1887 and 1894 as well as the Imperial

 

The surveying crew of Sanford Fleming (stg ctr) in 1871

Cable Conference in London (1896). A supporter of a cable from Canada to Australia as early as 1879, he saw this project accomplished in 1902.

Fleming was for many years a director of both the C.P.R. and Hudson 's Bay Company as well as chancellor of Queen's University, 1880-1915. He was awarded an LL.D from four universities: St. Andrew's (1884), Columbia (1887) , Toronto (1907) and Queen's (1908), a charter member of the Royal Society of Canada and, in 1888, its president Over the years he was the author of several major works on railways and telegraph cables as well as numerous monographs, reports and published articles. He was created a C.M.G. in 1877 and a K.C.M.G. in 1897.

Sir Sanford Fleming, one of the builders of Canada , - that to our shame we've largely forgotten - died in Halifax on 22 July, 1915 . His passing was almost completely overshadowed by news from the front.

Wayne Jacobs is a numismatic expert. Currently secretary and editor of the "Mid-Island Coin Club Numismatic Journal"of Nanaimo, Vancouver Island , British Columbia, he is the award winning author of numerous articles. The MICC journal are hosted here: MICC webpages Copyright 2006 Wayne Jacobs. This article may be reprinted freely for non commercial purpose only if the resource box is left intact, linking back to us.